Room 23 students strive to write clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea. This year students will progress through the stages of the writing process while composing narratives, descriptions, and friendly letters. Spelling, Grammar, Handwriting, and Structural Analysis skills are integrated into our writing block.
Grammar
GO GRAMMAR!
Grammar links for 3rd Grade skills practice
- Sentence Clubhouse
- Grammar Blast- The Sentence
- Common and Proper Nouns
- Noun Dunk
- Nouns
- Plural Nouns
- Plural Play
- Compound Words
- Verbs
- Verb Power
- Verb Tense
- Adjectives and Adverbs
- Adjectives
- Capitalization and Punctuation
- Power Proofreading
- Grammar Gorillas
- Pronouns
- Pronouns
- Parts of Speech
- Proofreading
Grammar skills are taught as part of the writing process. Grammar skills are also integrated into each Reading unit. There will be one or two grammar skill(s) presented each week. These skills will be tested at the end of each theme and using rubrics on writing assignments.
Spelling/Word Study
Each week your child will be given spelling words to study at home based on the spelling pattern we are studying in class. Researchers have found that students often memorize words for a test and then promptly forget them the following week. This is because assigned spelling lists require students to study isolated words rather than studying the phonics, the sounds that letters make within the words.
- This is awesome for a fun experience with the good old fashioned, LOOK-COVER-WRITE-CHECK! method. You may enter in your own spelling words 10 words at a time. You can play and practice with your electronic buddy as many times as you like!
- Type in 10 spelling words and the Spelling Wizard will create either a scramble puzzle or a word search for you to complete. A great way to help you memorize how to spell your words. Print it out and bring it with your homework for extra credit.
- This may be my favorite one of all. How would you like an on-line voice pre-testing you with your very own spelling words? This is amazing, kids! Just enter our spelling words into the game and when you're ready to test, the game speaks to you, prompting you to spell-type your words! If you miss any, the game will help you learn. You can also play games here with your words like, "Hangmouse", and "Missing Letter". Try it out and see! (*WARNING KIDS: THIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR PARENTS!!! :-)
- Help Joey spell in this fun game.
Writing
Learning the writing process will be a main focus this year. Using the Write from the Beginning writing strategies, your child will write friendly letters, narratives, and descriptions, as well as poems, explanations, and responses to literature. Students will move into writing multi-paragraph essays containing an opening and a closing paragraph. In each type of writing you will see an increasing use of supporting details and descriptive language as well as a variance in sentence patterns. The ability to perform these competencies will be facilitated by my modeling and through mini-lessons as well as numerous opportunities for practice and individual conferences.
Handwriting (Third Grade only)
Learning to write in cursive is one of the highlights of third grade. Most students are excited about learning to read and write "grown-up" writing. We will begin the year by polishing manuscript writing, but will quickly move in to cursive writing. Handwriting is very difficult to grade because each person has an individual style of writing. I am not as concerned with having a student make "picture perfect" letters as I am with developing writing that is legible and neat. You will see very few handwriting papers graded because most are simply for practice.
| pdf file: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 7 or higher) to view this file. Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader for PC or Macintosh. | |
| doc file: You need the Microsoft Word program, a free Microsoft Word viewer, or a program that can import Word files in order to view this file. To learn more about the free Microsoft Word Viewer, visit the Microsoft Word website. |
- Website with animated cursive examples
- Use your writing skills to create your own cartoon.